I Forgive You
by YoshiDude9206
Summary: Frisk prepares to enter the throne room after FIGHTing their way through the Underground. But when they meet the king, they learn something that changes everything they knew about monsterkind. Hold on to your hats, friends, this one is (supposed to be) a tear-jerker!


Hey, everybody! Looks who's back! Yup, it's YoshiDude. The one, the only. Been a couple years, huh?  
Now, just because I've been MIA for a long, long time doesn't mean I haven't been writing. So here is my contribution to the Undertale fandom. No chapters, just a one-shot, and it's finished, so never fear.  
Disclaimers, as are the tradition: I do not own Undertale. I do not own any characters in this story; there are no OCs. I only own the idea for this specific AU.  
Enjoy, party peoples!

Edit: Later, I reread it and edited it thanks to some proofreading from my friends, so it is now a little better and makes more sense in places. Also: _300-something views!?_ Godamn, I shoulda made something Undertale-related ages ago!

I stood outside the entrance to the throne room and attempted to see inside without entering. It was impossible; the room was too dark to see anything. I was reluctant to enter without knowing what awaited me. I did know from reading some ancient writings that the king's name was Asgore Dreemur. His name would be the only one that I knew for sure down here.

Ever since I fell into this place, almost every creature I met tried to hit me or throw things at me. The rest just ran away. I have defended myself appropriately, killing many of them. I felt a little guilty, but not that much. They did seem to be intelligent enough to communicate both vocally and by writing, but I knew that if I let my guard down, they would kill me in a heartbeat. I knew this, because I had already died countless times.

The dog in armor had killed me once, a flaming rope killed me once, and I died twice to some muscular horse-fish. But for some reason, every time my body was broken, something held me, kept me from dying. I would wake up as if I had never been struck down, and I kept fighting. The one called Undying killed me more times than I could count, and the tall skeleton tried to get me to let my guard down. I had already made that mistake once before. I thought I could trust the woman who saved me from the talking flower, but I was wrong. I killed her before she could kill me, and I killed the skeleton, too.

All I wanted was to go home, and these monsters stood in my way and attacked me! But now, so close to the end, I wouldn't let anyone stop me. No fish, goat, airplane, frog, or flower had stopped me yet. And I wouldn't let this king stop me, either.

I decided it was time. Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside the throne room.

I immediately stopped again and looked around in amazement. The place was beautiful. The ground was covered in golden flowers. Patches of light fell from somewhere above. A large circle of light illuminated the center of the room where a throne sat. In the corner of the room sat what was obviously another throne, but it was covered in a white sheet. At first I missed the monster standing there. He was staring at the covered throne with a sad expression. He didn't even notice my arrival. I spoke up.

"Are you Asgore Dreemur?"

He looked up and saw me. His eyes were friendly and welcoming. He was taller, and much broader shouldered, than most monsters I'd met, but it wasn't as apparent because he was so kindly-looking. He wore a robe, and a crown rested between his horns. He said something, but I didn't care. I pulled out my knife. Dreemur's eyes widened, and he started talking faster.

"I don't care what you say," I said, as I advanced toward him. "I just want to go home."

Dreemur mouthed something. I caught the word "child," but it's hard to read lips when barely anything down here even has lips.

"I may be a child," I tried to answer, as I raised my weapon, "but I can still defend myself." He looked confused. Then thoughtful. Then, to my surprise, he raised his hands...

"Are you deaf?" he with his hands. I instantly stopped in my tracks. Dreemur smiled. "Ah, that explains it. You misunderstood me, child."

It was rough, and slow, and incredibly imprecise, but he was using American sign language. How did a monster know sign language? When could he have learned it?

"My words were, 'I mean you no harm, child,'" Asgore clarified. "Please, drop the knife. I will make us some tea, and we can talk."

I hesitated. "How do I know you won't attack me when I let my guard down?" I asked him.

He thought a moment. "You don't. But I can see you hurt, and I want to help you." I could see the kindness in his eyes as he said this. I reluctantly put my weapon away and approached him warily. "See, now we can have a civil conversation. Please, wait here, and I'll fetch my tea set." He gave me a welcoming smile, then walked past me, toward the house I now assumed to be his that I had passed through on the way here.

While I waited, my mind was going a million miles an hour. How in the world was Dreemur able to use ASL? From his movements, I could tell he hadn't used it in quite a while. I supposed there must be deaf people in every society, even here. So, was Dreemur the only monster who could sign? Or was it possible that I had already encountered someone who could? Was it possible that I had…?

I felt a cold shiver run through me. That wasn't something I wanted to think about right now.

Dreemur returned, sitting down cross-legged in front of me, and setting down a tray carrying a tea kettle and two cups between us. "Please, sit," he signed to me, motioning across the tray. I sat down.

"So, tell me a little about yourself. What is your name?"

"Um," I stammered a little. "I'm Frisk."

"Frisk, correct?" he spelled out my name with his hands. I nodded. "Alright, Frisk, where did you come from?"

I fidgeted with the edge of my shirt a little. "Well, um…. I don't really want to talk about that."

"Fine, fine, I won't push you," Dreemur replied. "I know you're probably very surprised right now. I'm quite a large monster!" He laughed. When he signed "surprise" his face said "frightened" so I knew he'd meant to say I was scared.

I laughed a little too, despite myself. "Well, you're big, Mr. Dreemur, but you're not very scary."

He gave me the kindest smile I had ever seen. "Please, call me Asgore."

We drank our tea and talked for a while. Every now and then he would make a mistake while signing, but I was usually able to figure out what he meant using context and facial expressions. He really was exceptionally friendly. But my mind kept going over my journey here. I wasn't born deaf, which is why I could speak so well. Learning sign language hadn't been too hard for me, but when it came to reading lips, I always managed to interpret something wrong. That, combined with the aforementioned lack of lips, meant that I couldn't really tell what the monsters were saying. I assumed they were trying to attack me. Could I have jumped to conclusions? That small feeling of guilt was back, and it was growing. I didn't know why at first; I had already told myself it was self-defense, and besides, they were just monsters. But so is Asgore, and I couldn't imagine ever hurting him now. And there was one more thing that bothered me. He looked a lot like….

"Mr. Asgore?" I blurted out.

"Yes, child?"

I pointed to the sheet-covered throne in the corner. "Was there ever a Queen Dreemur?"

Asgore sighed. He suddenly looked sad, depressed almost. "Yes, child. My wife, Toriel, left me many years ago. To be perfectly honest, I deserved to lose her."

"How could you say that?" I walked around the tea tray and stood next to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. "Mistakes are mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance."

"Thank you, Frisk, but it's too late now. The things I did…." He sighed again, then looked to me. "You deserve to know everything that I have done."

Asgore explained everything to me. How his son found a human who had fallen. How he and Toriel raised the human child as their own. How the human succumbed to sickness, and how his son absorbed the human soul to free the monsters. How he was killed by the humans, but never fought back.

He recounted how he declared war on all humans in a fit of grief. How Toriel wanted no part of that, and left to live in the ruins. How his people have hope that one day all monsters will go free, but Asgore never really wanted to hurt anyone. How he just wants his wife back.

Asgore finished his tale and looked at me. His face fell when he saw that I was staring at him with an expression of horror. He began signing so fast it was almost uninterpretable. "Please, child, I still won't hurt you! I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. All I want is my family back." My face didn't change; my eyes remained wide, mouth slightly open. I was breathing heavily. Asgore seemed to give up. "I understand. You can't trust me after everything I've told you. I can lead you back to the surface; you can go home and never think of me again."

She was trying to help me.

I tried to speak. My mouth moved, but I couldn't feel the words escape my throat. "What was that, child?" Asgore asked.

She wanted to protect me.

I tried again, but my vocal chords refused to produce any sound. I could barely breathe. A tear rolled down my cheek. Asgore looked worried. "Are you okay, Frisk? Do you need something?"

She had a heart, she had feelings. They all had feelings.

I grabbed my head with my hands and screamed as loud as I could. "I KILLED HER!"

Asgore took a step back. He looked at me with an expression I can't quite describe; it held confusion and distrust all at once.

They were people.

"I killed her! I watched her turn to dust! I watched them all turn to dust. I killed all of them. Every last one, every single monster that so much as looked at me. I killed them all!"

Through my blurry vision, I saw Asgore watching me with that same expression as I fell to my knees. I couldn't control them now; the tears were streaming down my face. "I killed the dogs," I sobbed, "I killed the skeleton, I killed the one with the cool hat, I killed the snowflake bird, I killed the reindeer…. God, no wonder Undying tried so hard to kill me, I murdered everyone she knew!" I was on all fours now, tears falling onto the golden flowers below me. "I thought they wanted to hurt me, I thought they were trying to stop me, but really they were scared of me, and I couldn't hear them trying to talk to me. I killed them all! I killed them all…." My voice trailed away, and I pressed my forehead into the soil. I lay kneeling among the flowers, sobbing with overwhelming guilt from everything I'd done. I killed so many people. I'm the monster here, not them.

Suddenly, I felt the flowers move. I looked up, face still damp, to see Asgore kneeling in front of me. He looked like he'd been crying too-he had red, puffy eyes and his fur was damp—but he looked me right in the eyes, raised his right hand in an "O", and then brought his hands together in front of him with his pointer and middle fingers extended.

It's okay.

I straightened up some and stared at him. He gave me a small smile. Then he looked a little worried. "Was that the right context?" He tried again, lifting his left hand, palm up, and brushed his fingers across the top twice.

I forgive you.

I felt the tears return. "How?" I whispered. "How could you do that?"

"Because," he signed, "you didn't mean to."

"That doesn't excuse what I've done! I don't deserve your forgiveness!" I said angrily. "I deserve a lot of things, but forgiveness is not one of them!"

"It doesn't matter to me whether you deserve it or not," Asgore told me. "I forgive you." He extended his arms toward me.

I sat there for a few seconds as more tears spilled over. "How… how could you… I killed your wife!"

"And I will never stop grieving her. But it was not your fault," he signed. He put his arms out toward me again.

I sat for another few seconds. Then I broke down, sobbing even harder than I was before. Asgore scooped me up in a gigantic fuzzy hug, and I hugged him and cried, repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…."

I must have cried myself to sleep, because next thing I knew, I was in a bed. I sat up, and I recognized the room as belonging to Asgore's house. This must have been his kids' room.

I sat in that bed for a long time, thinking. I knew I had done an awful thing—a multitude of awful things. I also knew that Asgore had forgiven me. That wasn't going to ease the pain of losing his wife and all of his people, but there was nothing I could do. I'd murdered them, and that couldn't be undone now.

Or could it?

I climbed out of bed. Asgore had left out a change of clothes for me: a green and yellow striped shirt and a pair of shorts oddly similar to mine. But I ignored them and grabbed my backpack, which was sitting next to the bed, opening it and rooting around inside. My hand closed around the handle and I pulled out what I was looking for just as the bedroom door opened.

I looked over as Asgore peeked inside, signing. "At first, I knocked. But then I remembered that you—" The laugh on his face died as his eyes moved from the knife in my hand to my determined face. "Child, what are you…."

I smiled at him. "Thank you, Mr. Asgore. For accepting me despite everything I've done." I tightened my grip. "But now it's time for me to fix everything I've done."

Asgore stepped forward and began signing furiously. "This will fix nothing, my child! More bloodshed solves nothing! Please, just put the knife down, you can live here with me. This isn't the only way—"

I put the knife to my throat. Asgore gave up on communication and rushed forward….

…Just as I pulled the cold steel through my flesh.

I closed my eyes, still smiling, and let my consciousness fade into darkness. The last thing I was aware of were words, echoing through my head, in a voice that was not my own. "You cannot give up just yet! Frisk, stay determined…." Is that what Asgore sounds like?

It doesn't matter.

Because then, everything RESET.


End file.
